Experts highlight advances with the potential to revolutionize industry, health care and society
If some of the many thousands of human volunteers needed to test coronavirus vaccines could have been replaced by digital replicas—one of this year’s Top 10 Emerging Technologies—COVID-19 vaccines might have been developed even faster, saving untold lives. Soon virtual clinical trials could be a reality for testing new vaccines and therapies. Other technologies on the list could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by electrifying air travel and enabling sunlight to directly power the production of industrial chemicals. With “spatial” computing, the digital and physical worlds will be integrated in ways that go beyond the feats of virtual reality. And ultrasensitive sensors that exploit quantum processes will set the stage for such applications as wearable brain scanners and vehicles that can see around corners.
These and the other emerging technologies have been singled out by an international steering group of experts. The group, convened by Scientific American and the World Economic Forum, sifted through more than 75 nominations. To win the nod, the technologies must have the potential to spur progress in societies and economies by outperforming established ways of doing things. They also need to be novel (that is, not currently in wide use) yet likely to have a major impact within the next three to five years. The steering group met (virtually) to whittle down the candidates and then closely evaluate the front-runners before making the final decisions. We hope you are as inspired by the reports that follow as we are.
1. MICRONEEDLES COULD ENABLE PAINLESS INJECTIONS AND BLOOD DRAWS
2. SUN-POWERED CHEMISTRY CAN TURN CARBON DIOXIDE INTO COMMON MATERIALS
3. VIRTUAL PATIENTS COULD REVOLUTIONIZE MEDICINE
4. SPATIAL COMPUTING COULD BE THE NEXT BIG THING
5. DIGITAL MEDICINE CAN DIAGNOSE AND TREAT WHAT AILS YOU
6. ELECTRIC AVIATION COULD BE CLOSER THAN YOU THINK
7. LOW-CARBON CEMENT CAN HELP COMBAT CLIMATE CHANGE
8. QUANTUM SENSORS COULD LET AUTONOMOUS CARS ‘SEE’ AROUND CORNERS
9. GREEN HYDROGEN COULD FILL BIG GAPS IN RENEWABLE ENERGY
10. WHOLE-GENOME SYNTHESIS WILL TRANSFORM CELL ENGINEERING
posted by f.sheikh